Birtish Court Orders Freezing of $8M of Assets Belonging to Craig Wright

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A UK court has authorized the freezing of £6.7 million ($8.4 million) of Craig Wright’s assets to prevent him from avoiding court expenses.

This decision came after Wright moved some of his assets out of the UK following a court ruling that disproved his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. According to a UK court document, Wright transferred shares of his London firm, RCJBR Holding, to a Singaporean entity on March 18, prompting concerns that he was trying to evade the costs of his trial loss.

Judge James Mellor expressed serious concerns about Wright’s actions, stating, “Understandably, that gave rise to serious concerns on COPA’s part that Dr Wright was implementing measures to seek to evade the costs and consequences of his loss at trial.” The judge endorsed a “worldwide freezing order” requested by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) to cover its court expenses totaling £6.7 million ($8.4 million).

COPA, established in 2020 to promote the adoption and advancement of cryptocurrency technologies and eliminate patents as a barrier to innovation, has 33 members, including Coinbase, Block, Meta, MicroStrategy, Kraken, Paradigm, Uniswap, and Worldcoin.